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What are your expectations of the support role?

SpiderTeo·5/8/2014, 9:56:58 PM·3 votes·914 views

I don't mind playing support if I'm the 4th or 5th pick during draft selection, and I honestly do try to place the role to the best of my ability. However, there have been way too many times to count where I had been the adc and my support just totally screws me over. Sometimes, it's a little subtle, like poaching off my cs with "accidental" auto-attacks, and other times it's pretty blatant ("Yeah, I chose Lux, but I'm taking the cs, throwing you under the bus, KSing like it was going out of style, and I'm going to carry the game, even though I was 5th pick and support was the only role left for me.")

I have some basic expectations from supports who share the lane with me, expectations that I hold to myself when I play support:

Ward the lane, and the map
Try not to take too many minion kills away from me

That's pretty much about it. Simple and not too difficult to do. I hold myself to higher standards when I play support (keep the adc alive, avoid deliberate kill-stealing, ward and counter-ward, take a dive for the adc, etc). But I usually only ask for the above two items. And yet, I find that so many players cannot even do these simple things. You can leave me after laning, you can have the kill if you can secure it, you don't need to die if I die due to my own mistakes. I'll give the support the benefit of the doubt, but even then, if you can't even ward a single bush every 3 minutes, then you probably need to go back to basics and out of ranked games!

I don't know if my expectations are too high, too low, or just right. I'm just naming he bare minimum of what I need as adc so I can be effective by mid-game and not totally gimped. What are your thoughts about supports?

9 Comments

Manchette5/8/2014, 11:16:34 PM7 votes

As a support main, I have a few mandatory actions which I take in and out of lane.

Never take cs unless under tower and the adc or another ally is absent.
Protect the adc over myself, even if that means leading the enemy away from him/her to my own doom.
Warding as much as possible, which means rushing before boots or even an improved gold item.
Harassing lane opponents above or around 50% health and setting up engagements for my adc.
Calling out blown ults/summoners for the jungler.
Pinging MIA.
Warding allied buffs, dragon, and baron after the laning phase.
Among other things. :P

I hope this can shed some light on how a dedicated support supports.

Roaranor5/9/2014, 6:36:03 PM2 votes

I think your frustration comes more into play with whether or not someone who's left with support is willing to cooperate and play the role to the best of their abilities.

As an ADC main who learned how to play support, my expectations are practically dirt low, mostly because I don't mind acknowledging two things:

Some, if not a lot of people, legitimately don't know how to support. It's actually pretty common even in higher elo.
Players that genuinely dont know how to support but are willing to cooperate and play the role are usually open to advice and criticism, which means I can help coach them through what to do and they'll usually listen if I have a postive attitude about it. Of course if I say something like "gg support won't ward" that'll make them even more reluctant to do it. Rather, I'll say "You should try to get two wards per b, until you have a sightstone. I'll buy one or two when I can to help out" or "Can you ward that spot right there, so we have vision of both mid/jungler gank paths" The latter approach works out awesomely about 90% of the time.

If someone doesn't know how to support, I encourage you to at least purchase Soraka. She's pretty cheap, and at the very least you can just sit back and give mana/heals and I'll run a 2v1 lane (That's my personal opinion though).

Of course, supports that know how to play the role are super nice to have, but I don't go into lane as ADC with this expectation. I act as if they're a new player, and adjust my analysis on their skill, mechanics, and possible engages as the game goes on. I think this is the best approach to take for both the ADC and the support.

Pyrrasu5/9/2014, 5:09:17 AM1 votes

It really depends on which champion I picked, but here's some general things I try to do as support:

Zone the enemy ADC from last hitting, either by poke or threat
Keep the area warded, keep dragon warded if I can
Have an escape plan should we get ganked
Watch map
Time dragon
If ADC doesn't need me, try to ward around, help push mid, gank, etc
Focus on peeling for your damage dealer(s) in teamfights (unless I'm Leona)

Play to the champion you're using, too. Leona is an all-in champ, Karma is a poke champ, etc. A lot of non-support players buy one support in case they need to do it but don't really understand how to play it in lane (passive Leonas...). Like all champs, find a guide describing their general playstyle before you take them into ranked.

LovelySkylark5/9/2014, 8:29:34 AM1 votes

I agree with the above comments; however in ranked I almost always get support whether I'm last pick or not! I do believe that you should try and play a champ that you know the general way to play them. Another point I wanted to bring in is that taking farm from your adc when you don't have a relic shield up is counter productive. I mean, you're getting gold from the minions dying in lane anyway (provided you picked up a support item) so you shouldn't need to take farm unless you have the relic shield or there isn't anyone in lane with you. Another thing when I'm playing adc that bothers me is when supports ping their adc way too much. I think the occasional fall back is fine, but if you're going to do it to me as many times as you can in one sitting, it's going to get old.

I think one thing that supports need to realize when playing is that its extremely hard to be in sync with another person when you've never talked to them or seen how they play. Likewise, it's hard as a support to do judge what your adc will do. There are times where I have picked Leona and gone aggressive and havent had my adc follow up because they want us to be passive and not do anything.

Ultimately i think it comes down to communication. I like to ask my adc if they want me to be aggressive or passive or if i'm playing someone like Nami/Soraka/Sona, which ability they'd like me to start with. Sometimes its a heal, sometimes its the CC. The communication is what makes the bot lane work.

Although recently, I've seen a lot of supports get upset with their adc for dumb reasons and call them out on it, which isn't helping anyone in the long run. :/

Archainis5/9/2014, 4:45:19 PM1 votes

I think the support role has 2 aspects to it: map control and peel. This may not seem like much, but the best fulfillment of these two objectives is a pretty big job.

Map control means setting up areas where your team can safely go and where the opponent team cannot. During the laning phase, I mostly focus on map control of bot lane.

Controlling the lane means making it harder for the opponent team to cs and keeping the lane in such a condition that we can push if needed. Depending on the champion I'm playing, this can mean zoning with a stun I have, poking to keep opponent health down, or sustaining to keep ours up or some combination of those. In general, while I think it's ok to take cs (especially the cs that the adc can't get like the stuff dying to tower while they're back), I'll be too busy controlling the lane to compete with my adc for cs. In general, I don't care who the kills go to in our lane because the gains in lane control we get for that is more valuable to me than the 150g difference between kill and assist. After all, we might even get a chance to get tower or dragon off that!

Controlling the map after laning means warding at appropriate places and times (no need to ward baron before 15 for example) and also being in the right place to push towers, start fights or clear waves (only if you're a wave clear support) at the right time.

Of course, peeling during teamfights is also important (but varies a bit depending on which champion you're playing). The basic idea behind peeling is make it so that your adc doesn't have to reduce their damage by having to kite. Sometimes that's stunning the person diving them, other times (if the person diving them isn't very threatening) it means zoning the opponent damage sources. It's always a judgement call, and a big part of the skill of supporting.

One thing to note, peeling for your adc is for the purpose of winning the teamfight, not just preventing them from dying. It sucks, but sometimes that means choosing to help the rest of your team clean up after the opponent team overcommits for your adc, but this isn't often the case as most cases where they get your adc, you've already lost the teamfight.

Toyo5/14/2014, 1:59:58 AM1 votes

Uhh, personal expectations as a adc/support main.

Ward if our lane is at risk of ganks. I understand completely if you wait a bit after the enemy jungler was spotted at top or something, but just never putting a ward up there is kinda poor form.
Mention things with large cooldowns being blown. (Flash and ultimates are the main ones, but Heal and Exhaust are usually also worth mentioning.)
Supply utility to the team later in the game, depending on the champion (Soraka should be healing, Janna should be peeling, Braum should be tanking, Thresh should be applying CC to the everything, etc)
Keep wards at crucial objectives (Baron and Dragon) later in the game.
Stick with the team; your role is made to be a TEAM PLAYER, not to splitpush or get you self killed in the jungle while taking camps. (If you're going to ward, ask a teammate to come along if possible if you can't keep track of where the enemy is. Friendship warding!)